Memphis school grows, eats its own veggies, herbs

Grahamwood Elementary fifth-graders Nathaniel Danziger (left) Ben Lindy and Berent Balink cheer at the arrival of more basil as Lauren Bangasser from the Memphis City Schools Nutrition Services department helps kids learn about crop harvesting and nutrition at the school.

The fifth-graders at Grahamwood Elementary picked, shelled, weighed and calculated how many ounces are in 15.5 pounds of dried purple hull peas.

A few sampled the fruits — well — actually the veggies of their labors. The rest went to the lower grades who had earlier lunch periods.

"I would honestly want my Mom to make these for dinner," said Kate Zimmerman, 10, as she ate her lunch — and peas — in the cafeteria. "I thought it might be flavorless but the end product is delicious. Look, see they cooked onions in with them."

Her friend, Abigail Apple, agreed. "It's better than I thought it would be. I like the juice part. It's like V-8 but with peas."

The 100- by 300-foot garden with its three hoop houses (temporary greenhouses), 24 raised beds and row crops is Memphis City School's first demonstration school garden site. But the school's 985 students and their teachers are the real owners. It's their garden. You can hear it in their voices. One boy boasted he's a chef."In the cafeteria, Isiah Herring wanted to know: "Is this watermelon from our garden?"

During recess, a few children wandered over to the garden, wanting to help farm manager/educator Lauren Bangasser. The plump red cherry tomatoes are a hit. "I had to set a limit to two per person per day," she said. "I have one girl who would eat the entire bush by herself."

Before their peas were served in the cafeteria, 73 fifth-graders spent about an hour in the garden. Half separated a tray of 1,600 seedlings of the school's fall crop of spinach, cabbage, mustard greens, chard and kale into individual plastic cups.

The rest of the students sat on upside down buckets in groups of four or more and made a game of plucking basil leaves off the stems. "Go, go, go. We've got to do this fast," Nathaniel Danzier told his group. Soon, the boys and the girls nearby were making up basil chants.

"Love it," Ben Lindy said of the pesto he'll be eating in the cafeteria in the coming weeks. "Can't get enough of it."

Local, state and federal nutrition officials watched as the students easily answered questions about their garden. "So many times when you ask where does your food come from, kids will say the grocery store, on a shelf in cellophane," said USDA Farm to School Coordinator Kirk Farquharson of Atlanta. "This actually helps them understand the science of food and the need for nutritional food to be a part of their diet. It shows them the practical applications of life."

Grahamwood was one of four schools in the state that Farquharson visited last week as a part of promotion for more schools to serve produce grown in Tennessee.

Memphis City Schools executive director over nutrition services Anthony "Tony" Geraci said food and cooking opened up his world as a student.

"Until I started taking apart recipes, I didn't get math," he said. Without that understanding, Geraci said, "I might have been a line cook with bad hips and bad knees instead of running a $72 million food operation."

Grahamwood Principal Pete Johnson already is thinking of other ways to use the garden. He wants to see his students in the kitchen.

"We are headed in that direction," he said. "We want them to learn what is healthy cooking, and this is how you do it."

Stephan Leonard, another one of the farm manager/educators, said, "We want to grow what they want to eat." With 20 school gardens to manage and more on the way, Leonard said, "Our job is to get the garden going and let the community be a part of it and sustain it. If it was left to us, the garden wouldn't make it."